Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Thoughts on the new Music app

Iceage said:
I've been using the new music app for two weeks now. Tonight, I went back to Spotify just for fun. OMG the Apple Music App looks bad compare to Spotify. I don't know who's in charge of the design, but are you out of your mind? A couple of suggestion:

1- you don't need large font titles for each section ( Library, For You, Browse, Radio and Search). Actually, you need none. The tab from the section I'm in turns red, good enough for me.

2- the "now playing" screen is awful. Just bring back the iOS 9 version. There was nothing wrong with it.

3- please offer a dark mode. All that white and red lettering is a bit too much.

4- offer crossfade

5- Notifications if I'm adding a song to a playlist that already has it.

If this would be another streaming service, I would absolutely not subscribe to it. The only reason I use Apple Music is because of being able to sync a playlist to the watch for workouts and videos.

Steve Jobs would be embarrassed by this product.
Click to expand...

You knew Steve Jobs personally? How do you know that he would share you personal opinion on the matter?

It's funny how people complain all through out iOS 7-8 that the music app sucks, then complain it sucks post 8.4 and want it back to 7-8.3 days. And now want it back to 8.4-9.3 days.

Make up your minds.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hojx and nooaah
lagwagon said:
You knew Steve Jobs personally? How do you know that he would share you personal opinion on the matter?

It's funny how people complain all through out iOS 7-8 that the music app sucks, then complain it sucks post 8.4 and want it back to 7-8.3 days. And now want it back to 8.4-9.3 days.

Make up your minds.
Click to expand...

I know Steve Jobs liked things to be simple to use ... like Spotify.

For your info, I asked for one thing from a previous version, the "Now Playing" screen. Never read or heard anybody complain about it. The rest of the stuff is just "catch up to the competition" stuff.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Benjamin Frost
The music app in CarPlay is significantly worse for me. The Love option is now two taps and you can't even tell if you've loved a track already. I don't know if I'm a crazy outlier (I probably am), but I use the Love function to make note of songs I REALLY like in a playlist. Not every track is loved, just my favorites. While driving and skipping through songs, I could quickly glance down at the screen and see if it's a loved song or not. Now, there is no visual representation of that. I used to use the 5-star ratings religiously in iOS until they buried it behind taps and was really happy when the Love/heart system came into place. Now it seems to be getting buried again. It's just a nice way of organizing music for me.

Yes, I reported this to the feedback assistant already.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Benjamin Frost
lagwagon said:
You knew Steve Jobs personally? How do you know that he would share you personal opinion on the matter?

It's funny how people complain all through out iOS 7-8 that the music app sucks, then complain it sucks post 8.4 and want it back to 7-8.3 days. And now want it back to 8.4-9.3 days.

Make up your minds.
Click to expand...
This trend will only continue when Apple Music has another major design overhaul, then people will continue whining about that new design and beg for returning to what iOS 10 does. Never end, until Apple is dead.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EJ8
johngordon said:
They really need to add in some of the stuff currently removed - things like the ... next to each track in the track list of an album that you could use to add stuff to a playlist or add to playing next etc. I just hope they haven't decided to limit what you can do in response to all the stuff about it being too complicated.

I never really understood what all the fuss was about, and never thought it was that complicated or confusing - but maybe I'm some sort of genius!
Click to expand...

On 3D touch capable devices, the ... menus have been replaced with a 3D touch on the track title. Not sure how they will implement this for non-capable devices.
 
Shirasaki said:
This trend will only continue when Apple Music has another major design overhaul, then people will continue whining about that new design and beg for returning to what iOS 10 does. Never end, until Apple is dead.
Click to expand...

And yet, a good designer would overcome that nightmare scenario.

Ive said that designing simple is surprisingly hard. I believe him.
 
Shirasaki said:
This trend will only continue when Apple Music has another major design overhaul, then people will continue whining about that new design and beg for returning to what iOS 10 does. Never end, until Apple is dead.
Click to expand...

Well, is asking Apple to stop deleting my downloaded playlists considered whining too? Again this morning, all gone.
 
Iceage said:
Well, is asking Apple to stop deleting my downloaded playlists considered whining too? Again this morning, all gone.
Click to expand...
Hmm. This is not.
But I don't know why yours are all gone.
Are you AM subscriber and iTunes Match subscriber? If so then complaint it to Apple. Just state you are using iOS 9.3.2.
 
Shirasaki said:
Hmm. This is not.
But I don't know why yours are all gone.
Are you AM subscriber and iTunes Match subscriber? If so then complaint it to Apple. Just state you are using iOS 9.3.2.
Click to expand...

AM only. I did complain to Apple about 5-6 months ago. They sent me a charger for my troubles. :) But the problem was never resolved. I can go two months with no problems and then bang, it's gone. I can't trust it that's for sure. That's why I'm also subscribe to Spotify. It's like somebody turns off the iCloud toggle switch in the Music setting without me noticing.
 
Iceage said:
AM only. I did complain to Apple about 5-6 months ago. They sent me a charger for my troubles. :) But the problem was never resolved. I can go two months with no problems and then bang, it's gone. I can't trust it that's for sure. That's why I'm also subscribe to Spotify. It's like somebody turns off the iCloud toggle switch in the Music setting without me noticing.
Click to expand...
And this is just one more reason I don't want such subscription services. Apple really need to separate them, rather than messing them up into a single app.
And as you can see, Apple just need to turn on or off a switch, either by accident or intentionally, your beloved playlist/songs will just leave you forever.
Hope this is just a bug of beta.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Benjamin Frost
Shirasaki said:
And this is just one more reason I don't want such subscription services. Apple really need to separate them, rather than messing them up into a single app.
And as you can see, Apple just need to turn on or off a switch, either by accident or intentionally, your beloved playlist/songs will just leave you forever.
Hope this is just a bug of beta.
Click to expand...

They're not gone forever, you have to resync them but when you're on a cruise in the Caribbean, it's pretty hard.
 
I miss the old colouring. Fonts are way too big. The navigation is abhorrent (no way to see tracks on current album thats playing, no way to see all music by a certain artist in your library, no way to see all songs on an album in your library that only has one or two songs in it).

I really like the new heavy rotation section and how For You gives you todays date. The new now playing artwork looks pretty cool with the subtle glow behind the artwork, but again the track title is way too big.

Having one tab dedicated to recently added is great, since it was the main view I used on iOS 9.3 and the button to get to it was tiny.

I like how it automatically downloads songs you add to your library now. But having a download button on every single song is overkill, especially when it replaces the track lengths which I really miss. (They're really useful for seeing which tracks are skits/interludes and which ones are the big centrepieces)

They removed the popular star thingy that was introduced in iOS 9.3 which was great for showing you the singles and key tracks from albums.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tonyr6, Benjamin Frost and AppleChic76
Iceage said:
Well, is asking Apple to stop deleting my downloaded playlists considered whining too? Again this morning, all gone.
Click to expand...

I'm wondering if the new "Optimize Storage" option in Music for iOS 10 (see screenshot) maybe was something it always did but now have the option as a way to turn it off. (Could be why things have been deleted.)

I've never once had any of my playlists delete themselves (I have playlists still on my phone from when AM first started) But I've never filled my phone enough either for anything like that to kick in if it is something it did pre iOS 10 (the optimize storage thing)
[doublepost=1468086588][/doublepost]
luke lau said:
I miss the old colouring. Fonts are way too big. The navigation is abhorrent (no way to see tracks on current album thats playing, no way to see all music by a certain artist in your library, no way to see all songs on an album in your library that only has one or two songs in it).

I really like the new heavy rotation section and how For You gives you todays date. The new now playing artwork looks pretty cool with the subtle glow behind the artwork, but again the track title is way too big.

Having one tab dedicated to recently added is great, since it was the main view I used on iOS 9.3 and the button to get to it was tiny.

I like how it automatically downloads songs you add to your library now. But having a download button on every single song is overkill, especially when it replaces the track lengths which I really miss. (They're really useful for seeing which tracks are skits/interludes and which ones are the big centrepieces)

They removed the popular star thingy that was introduced in iOS 9.3 which was great for showing you the singles and key tracks from albums.
Click to expand...

A few of the things you've mentioned to be missing are things that just haven't been added back in (some have been mentioned in the actual release notes as coming in later builds. In other word she. It's early beta and still early-ish in the redesign and so it's not a finished app yet.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1259.PNG
    IMG_1259.PNG
    56.1 KB · Views: 135
Last edited:
About the only thing I like is the Now Playing Screen.
Apple have made sorting Albums a mess. I always sort Albums from Oldest to Newest. Since iOS 7 Albums have been sorted Newest first. Now the Music App sorts Albums Alphabetically. This makes the App even worse for me. Surely Apple could give us a few toggles to let us order the Albums how we want.
Think I'll be sticking with Cesium Music App. At least that gives me freedom of choice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tonyr6
crookadile said:
About the only thing I like is the Now Playing Screen.
Apple have made sorting Albums a mess. I always sort Albums from Oldest to Newest. Since iOS 7 Albums have been sorted Newest first. Now the Music App sorts Albums Alphabetically. This makes the App even worse for me. Surely Apple could give us a few toggles to let us order the Albums how we want.
Think I'll be sticking with Cesium Music App. At least that gives me freedom of choice.
Click to expand...

Sorting is more than likely not finished yet. The app is being redesigned. It's still early beta. At the very least I expect "newest to oldest" to return. Been wanting an "oldest to newest" as well.
 
A couple of things that would make it better for me would be the option to sort albums by date. I was listening to the new Switchfoot album yesterday and wanted to explore the other available albums but there was no indication of when they were released. Would be nice if we could see what the next newest album by artist was.

Also, the ability to see similar music from other artists would be really useful for me.
 
Benjamin Frost said:
And yet, a good designer would overcome that nightmare scenario.

Ive said that designing simple is surprisingly hard. I believe him.
Click to expand...
Or better just include multiple UI interfaces like skins that you can choose whatever one you like.
[doublepost=1468100408][/doublepost]
crookadile said:
About the only thing I like is the Now Playing Screen.
Apple have made sorting Albums a mess. I always sort Albums from Oldest to Newest. Since iOS 7 Albums have been sorted Newest first. Now the Music App sorts Albums Alphabetically. This makes the App even worse for me. Surely Apple could give us a few toggles to let us order the Albums how we want.
Think I'll be sticking with Cesium Music App. At least that gives me freedom of choice.
Click to expand...

Are you real. That is what I hated about Play Music. I like albums organized by Artist, Title and oldest to newest.
 
I searched for this and nothing came up...but where did the "shuffle" and "repeat" buttons go?

Had a single song I downloaded that I wanted to hear on repeat since I'm trying to memorize it. Had to constantly hit the button on my headphones after the song ended to replay it since I could not find the "repeat" button.
 
MozMan68 said:
I searched for this and nothing came up...but where did the "shuffle" and "repeat" buttons go?

Had a single song I downloaded that I wanted to hear on repeat since I'm trying to memorize it. Had to constantly hit the button on my headphones after the song ended to replay it since I could not find the "repeat" button.
Click to expand...
Scroll down a little bit and they are there.
 
I feel like things are bigger to create larger targets when using the app in brief potentially unsafe moments like driving or walking in a busy crowded area. You're not taking the time to squint down at your phone or holding it ridiculously close to your face. The interaction is quicker because you can identify your target nearly instantly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EJ8
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back